


The Great Rikkai Crossdressing Affair

by PluralForce



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Boys in Skirts, Crossdressing, Crossdressing Kink, M/M, Marui is cute and he knows it, Niou is sexy and he knows it, Yanagi is queen of Rikkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 20:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6393013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PluralForce/pseuds/PluralForce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marui and Niou decide they need to cause a bit of havoc in Rikkai.  Somehow, this leads to all of the regulars willingly dressing up in women’s clothes during tennis practice.  Some of them enjoy the situation far more than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Great Rikkai Crossdressing Affair

**Author's Note:**

> It seems like my new thing is writing tennis boys being ridiculous. I’m oddly okay with this.
> 
> I love the idea of Niou and Marui as those friends who antagonize each other constantly and don’t want to admit they’re secretly BFFs. I also enjoy boys in dresses. Thus this silly self-indulgent fic was born, and it was originally just going to be a short little thing, but then Yanagi happened and the whole thing spiraled out of my control.

Later, after everything is over, approximately half of Rikkai will regret ever letting Niou and Marui get bored at the same time.  
  
“Ughhhh,” Marui groans, leaning back to lie on his bed. “You. The loafer on the floor over there.” He gestures dramatically with one arm in the general direction of the floor below him. “Entertain me.”  
  
“What?” Niou says without looking up from the game he’s playing. “You mean you’re so boring that you really can’t entertain yourself for one afternoon?”  
  
Marui rolls over onto his stomach and glares at Niou. “Why are you even _here_ if you can’t make yourself entertaining?”  
  
“You’re the one who told me to come over,” Niou points out, still not looking at him. “What kind of host are you, anyway?”  
  
Marui ignores him and rolls back over onto his back, clutching a pillow to his chest. “Man, I could be hanging out with someone _fun_ right now. Like Jackal. Why didn’t I just do that, again?”  
  
“Jackal’s doing something with his family today. Sorry you’re stuck with me.” Niou glances up at him, quirking an eyebrow. “Seriously, the overdramatics are annoying. You really can’t entertain yourself? I thought you’d be doing another one of your weird food experiments and I’d be getting free food out of the deal.”  
  
“So _that’s_ the reason you agreed so easily.” Marui sighs. “Nah, I’m just not in the mood today.”  
  
At that Niou gets up from the floor with an expression of incredulity. “ _You?_ Not interested in food?” He climbs up onto the bed to feel Marui’s forehead. “Are you sick? What did you come down with?”  
  
Marui throws his pillow at Niou. “Shut up.” He sighs. “Nah, I mean… it’s been _boring_ lately. It’s _weird_ when it gets boring. I want to do something big. Like, to the whole team.” He sits up properly and looks at Niou. “So that’s where I figure you come in.”  
  
Niou hums and leans back. “I can’t say I _don’t_ have any ideas, but…”  
  
“Come on. There’s gotta be something.”  
  
Niou considers. “It’s mostly boring stupid stuff, though,” he says after a minute. “Or stuff I’ve already done before. It’s not _easy_ coming up with the really creative stuff, you know.”  
  
Marui raises his eyebrows. “Okay, ignoring the admission there that you actually put effort into anything. No good pranks at all, really? Not even any of the usual standbys?”  
  
“There’s only so many times you can switch out Sanada’s uniform before it gets boring.”  
  
“Clothes switching…” a considering look crosses Marui’s face. “No, wait, you might be onto something there. There’s gotta be a version of that that nobody’s done yet.”  
  
“If you really wanna go there,” Niou says, “there’s always the girls’ uniform. I don’t think I’ve done that one yet. This year, at least.”  
  
Marui cracks up. “Really, dude? To _Sanada?”_  
  
“I’ll let you take the credit on that one, though. Your idea in the first place.”  
  
After a minute, Marui stops laughing at the mental image long enough to speak. “Nah, what we really need is something on a bigger scale. Like, the same thing, but to _everyone_.”  
  
Niou looks thoughtful. “I dunno, you think it’d be worth it? I mean, if we’re gonna go to all the effort, we oughta make it something really big, y’know? More than just replacing everyone’s uniforms while they’re in the showers.” A grin starts to spread over his face. “Like, if we got them all to do it _willingly_.”  
  
Marui stares at him. “Okay, now you’ve gone crazy,” he declares. “ _How_ do we get them to do that? Sanada will eviscerate us before we even say anything.”  
  
“Oooh, where’d you learn a big word like _eviscerate_?” Niou says with a smirk.  
  
Marui flings another pillow at him. “Fuck off. Seriously, how?”  
  
“I’ll tell you how. We get Yagyuu on board.”  
  
Marui blinks at him, like he’s not quite sure he heard correctly. “You’re kidding, right? Yagyuu will never go for this. He’ll kill you before Sanada gets the chance.”  
  
Niou grins dangerously. “Not if I know all the right buttons to push.”  
  
——  
  
The next day after classes let out, Yagyuu stops by their classroom.  
  
“What is it, Niou-kun?” he asks without preamble. “We’re going to be late for practice if we linger too long.”  
  
“Don’t be such a bore, Yaaagyuu~” Niou drawls as he drapes himself over his desk. “We need your help. Like, really really need your help. We have an _awesome_ idea and we can’t do it without you.”  
  
Yagyuu sighs quietly. “If this is another one of your schemes…”  
  
“It’s not just _another_ scheme. It’s an _awesome_ scheme,” Niou says.  
  
“We’re going to get the whole team to dress up in girls’ clothes. Willingly,” Marui announces with a grin.  
  
Yagyuu just looks at the two of them. Then, without a word, he turns on his heel and starts for the door.  
  
“Come oooon, it’ll be a mess without your planning skills,” Niou whines at him.  
  
“If you want to spend the next eternity getting punished by yourselves, be my guest.”  
  
“Okay, then,” Niou says loudly in his direction, “I guess we have no other choice but to replace Sanada’s clothes in the locker room while he showers.”  
  
Yagyuu stops just before the door.  
  
Marui forces himself not to laugh. “That’s right,” he says in the same loud voice. “No other choice. We’ll just piss off Sanada by ourselves, and then we’ll spend foreeeever and ever doing laps.”  
  
“And losing practice time.”  
  
“And damaging the club’s reputation.”  
  
Yagyuu lets out a long-suffering sigh and turns back around. “All right, fine,” he says coldly as he walks up to Niou’s desk. “If you two are really going to cook up such an idiotic, incompetent plan by yourselves, then I suppose I have no choice but to get involved to make sure you don’t get yourselves killed in the process.”  
  
Niou shoots a smirk at Marui, as if to say, _see?_ Marui grins back.  
  
“All right, O Great and Wise Planner,” Niou says with a flourish. “Any ideas on how to get everyone else to go along with this?”  
  
Though the others can’t see it, there’s a calculating look in Yagyuu’s eyes as he speaks. “It all depends on whom you approach first, and how,” he says. “First, we get Yanagi-kun.”  
  
——  
  
“Crossdressing?” Yanagi says calmly. “How interesting. What brought on this idea, if I might ask?”  
  
“The idea was not mine, I assure you,” Yagyuu tells him. “Regardless, don’t you think it would be a good opportunity to get more data on everyone by putting the regulars in an unusual situation?”  
  
Behind him, Niou and Marui are forcing back identical looks of glee. Marui privately thinks it was a great idea to recruit Yagyuu, who’s kept a perfectly straight face throughout the whole conversation.  
  
“I admit the idea has some merit,” Yanagi says thoughtfully. “It would be interesting to see which schools imitate this new practice behavior, and to what extent.”  
  
“He just wants to get Sanada into a skirt,” Niou stage-whispers toward Marui. Yanagi smiles at him but doesn’t deny it.  
  
“Fantastic,” Yagyuu says brightly, and Marui could almost believe that he’s on board this thing for real. “If you could do us a favor and approach Yukimura-kun for us? I’m sure the idea would have greater merit for him coming from you, and it’s necessary for him to be on our side if we want to recruit Sanada-kun, as well.”  
  
“Certainly,” Yanagi agrees.  
  
Yagyuu turns toward them. “Marui-kun, I trust you can handle Jackal on your own? Because after that, it’s just a matter of who approaches Kirihara-kun.”  
  
“Sure,” Marui says, shrugging. He’d been planning on doing that anyway.  
  
 _—Wait._ Marui suddenly realizes what was wrong about what Yanagi said earlier.  
  
“Hold up, ‘practice behavior’?” he says. “You’re going to make us run around in skirts _during_ tennis practice?”  
  
“Of course.” Yanagi smiles a smile that sends shivers down Marui’s spine. “What else did you expect?”  
  
——  
  
That night, Yanagi drops by Yukimura’s house and explains the situation to him privately.  
  
“Yagyuu? Really? And you just went along with it?” There’s an amused tone to Yukimura’s voice.  
  
“The idea was certainly Niou and Marui’s,” Yanagi says. “That by itself is unsurprising. But for Yagyuu to get involved…” He shrugs. “I admit I was intrigued. And I do honestly see merit in the plan from a data standpoint.”  
  
“Of course you do.” Yukimura laughs. “So now you’re coming to me?”  
  
“Yagyuu was right; Genichirou will never agree to this if you don’t convince him.” Yanagi gives him an even look. “You can’t tell me you don’t think this sounds fun. And I’m sure the idea has, ah, other merits for you.”  
  
“Are you saying,” Yukimura says slowly, “that this is my excuse to see Sanada in a skirt?”  
  
“No. I’m saying that this is your excuse to let Genichirou see _you_ in a skirt.”  
  
Yukimura gives him a slow smile.  
  
——  
  
With Yanagi on board, the Plan has turned into a Mission. He’s determined that they can’t possibly just find matching school uniforms, oh no, that would be far less interesting. Which is why, the next day after tennis practice, the five of them find themselves wandering the aisles of a gigantic cosplay shop. To no one’s surprise, Yanagi has told them not to worry about the proper sizes for the three who aren’t present, as he already has everyone’s measurements.  
  
“I haven’t talked to Sanada yet,” Yukimura admits to Yanagi. “I thought maybe it would be easier to convince him if we already have the materials picked out first.”  
  
“Understandable. He may try to talk you out of it otherwise.” Yanagi nods and pulls a dress out from the rack he’s going through. “Here.”  
  
“Oh? That was fast.” Yukimura raises his eyebrows.  
  
“Not for me. For you,” Yanagi clarifies. He holds it up to Yukimura’s body, considering.  
  
Yukimura looks down at it. It’s a maid uniform. Not too revealing, simple and relatively tasteful, but still attractive. He laughs and takes it from Yanagi.  
  
On the other side of the store, Niou and Marui are pulling out outfit after outfit from the rack, giggling over each one. Yagyuu was with them, at first, but he’s wandered off somewhere, and both of them are having too much fun to try to find him.  
  
After about half a dozen rejected outfits, Marui finally finds what he’s been looking for the whole time.  
  
“Here we go,” he proclaims, pulling out a frilly pink and white lolita dress.  
  
Niou snorts. “Seriously?”  
  
“Hey, if I’m doing this, I’m going to go all the way,” Marui defends. “What about you? I haven’t seen you settle on anything yet.”  
  
Not that Marui’s helped with that; so far he’s rejected Niou’s sexy nurse, sexy policewoman, and sexy schoolteacher on the grounds that they’re all too cliche.  
  
“Gotta give it time,” Niou says as he turns back to the clothing rack. “I have to make sure I find the exact perfect—oh, _hell_ yes.”  
  
Before Marui can ask, Niou has presented him with the latest outfit of choice. “The sexy spy outfit,” Niou declares. Marui looks it over—it’s basically just two skimpy pieces of black leather with added black pantyhose.  
  
This time it’s Marui’s turn to snort. “Okay, _that’s_ a good one.”  
  
“Good, because I wasn’t gonna listen to your opinion anyway if you said it wasn’t.” Then Niou grins. “And _now_ , I believe we’ve been tasked with finding an outfit for ickle baby Akaya.” They’ve already found one for Jackal while searching for Marui’s dress.  
  
Marui grins back. “Any ideas?”  
  
“Sure. Whatever is going to torment him most.”  
  
In the ensuing chaos of finding the perfect outfit for their kouhai and then actually buying everything, neither of them realize that no one has seen Yagyuu’s or Yanagi’s dresses.  
  
——  
  
After that, the remaining three regulars take little convincing. Relatively speaking, of course.  
  
“No,” Sanada says firmly, trying his best to glower.  
  
Yukimura smiles at him. “Come on, Sanada,” he says sweetly. “It’s already decided. I’m going to be doing this either way. You wouldn’t leave me to embarrass myself like this alone, would you?”  
  
Sanada grimaces. _Dammit._ And that, naturally, is that.  
  
Meanwhile, Marui, over with Jackal:  
  
“You’re going to go through with this no matter what I say, aren’t you?” Jackal says.  
  
Marui grins impishly. “Yep.”  
  
“And do I get a choice in this?”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
Jackal sighs heavily. “Okay. Fine. You know what? Fine. At least you’re not using my budget this time.”  
  
Finally, there’s the matter of Akaya:  
  
“I DON’T WANNA,” Akaya yells, hiding his face in his arms.  
  
“Come on, Akaya, everyone’s doing it,” Marui reasons. “Our captain is doing it. _Sanada_ is doing it.”  
  
“I DON’T CARE,” Akaya says stubbornly. “You probably just picked out the worst one for me, right, senpais?!”  
  
Niou scoffs. “Hey, hey, give me some credit! You got one of the sexiest ones!”  
  
Akaya doesn’t respond. Marui somehow doesn’t think that helped.  
  
After a moment, Niou adds, “I’ll give you free copies of the blackmail photos of Sanada.”  
  
“…Really?” Akaya looks up.  
  
——  
  
Near the end of tennis practice the afternoon after they pick out the dresses, Yukimura grabs a megaphone and makes an announcement to the club.  
  
“Attention, everyone,” he calls. “If I could have your attention for a moment.” He pauses for everyone to gather.  
  
“Thank you. Now,” he continues. “Tomorrow afternoon, during practice, we’re going to have a bit of a… special event.” They had decided to restrict it to one practice only, since no one’s quite sure how well they’ll be able to move around.  
  
“Some of our regulars had the idea to have everyone cosplay in women’s outfits for an afternoon,” Yukimura says with his sweet smile. “After some consideration, I decided it would be a good way to attract attention for our club and bring in more spectators to our games.” This is complete bullshit, and everyone knows it, but no one’s about to question the captain. “As such, all of us regulars will be participating. Although the rest of you are not required to participate as well, you are encouraged to do so if you wish. However!” he barks out above the growing murmurs. “Do _not_ use this as an excuse to slack off! I expect all of you to be in top shape tomorrow, the same as always! Do you understand me!”  
  
A confused but admirably in-sync chorus of “YES, BUCHOU” echoes back at him.  
  
“Good! You’re all dismissed!” With that, Yukimura puts down the megaphone and strides off toward the locker room.  
  
Marui can barely keep from cackling as he follows. Tomorrow is going to be _fun._  
  
——  
  
The following afternoon, they’ve all agreed to change in separate stalls, to make everyone’s outfit reveals more fun. Marui finishes first, and so stands in front of a mirror in the locker room, looking himself over. “Oh yeah,” he says to his reflection. “I got this.”  
  
His outfit is perfect, if he does say so himself. The lolita dress is short-sleeved with plenty of frills and ribbons; it’s bubblegum pink with white accents and a cute candy print across the skirt. He’s also got a pair of pristine white socks that disappear up into his skirt. The tennis sneakers ruin the effect a little bit, but Yukimura flat-out refused to let them practice in anything other than their regular shoes.  
  
Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the rest of it looks good. Marui smiles and strikes a pose.  
  
“I can’t believe you’re enjoying this,” Jackal grumbles from behind him.  
  
Marui turns around. Jackal is wearing a bright red, floral print Chinese qipao dress that barely comes down to his mid-thigh. He’s crossing his arms self-consciously as he looks Marui over.  
  
Marui grins at him. “Well, no matter how you look at it, I’m cute, right?” He spins around to demonstrate.  
  
“Yeah, sure, but I’m _hot_ ,” Niou calls over as he saunters in. Marui looks at him and raises his eyebrows. Niou’s outfit is even skimpier on him than it looked on the rack: the short-sleeved leather jacket, which is zipped up only halfway, ends above his belly button and shows off his midriff perfectly; the matching miniskirt barely provides enough coverage. The sheer black pantyhose ensure that he won’t be flashing anyone with that skirt, but they don’t exactly make the ensemble any less revealing, either.  
  
“…What are you supposed to be, again?” Marui asks.  
  
“Does it matter?” Niou retorts.  
  
They’re both distracted by the sound of Yagyuu entering the room. He doesn’t say anything, but his glasses flash, as if he’s daring them to say a word.  
  
Niou stares at him and whistles. “Holy shit.”  
  
Yagyuu is wearing a red plaid jumper dress, straight and simple with a few pleats in the skirt, along with a white collared shirt and a pair of white over-the-knee socks.  
  
“You’re wearing a schoolgirl outfit,” Niou says simply. “A Catholic schoolgirl outfit.”  
  
Yagyuu shifts uncomfortably. “I was trying to get something more conservative.”  
  
“Yeah, well, you know that covering up more doesn’t mean less sexy, right?”  
  
Niou’s still staring. Marui smacks him on the shoulder, because he does not need to deal with that shit.  
  
At that point, Akaya barrels into the room, blushing all over. “I can’t believe you talked me into this, senpais. A _cheerleader?”_  
  
And he is. Akaya is wearing a navy blue, two piece, midriff-exposing cheerleader uniform and not much else.  
  
Niou tears his eyes away from Yagyuu to grin at Akaya. “Come on, I said I got you the sexiest one, didn’t I? Besides mine, I mean.”  
  
“That doesn’t help, Niou-senpai,” Akaya squawks.  
  
“I see you’re all having fun in here.”  
  
They all turn to the door as Yanagi steps in.  
  
Niou blinks. “Oh shit, he’s declared himself queen.”  
  
Yanagi smiles at him evenly. His dress has a black torso and a layered red skirt with black lace; the whole thing has white accents with a heart motif, and long white socks to match. Marui takes one look at him and thinks _Queen of Hearts._  
  
“I was hoping to surprise all of you with this,” he says to their collective stares. “I see it worked quite well.”  
  
Eventually, Marui clears his throat. “Right, uh. You got the other two in there with you?”  
  
“Genichirou is here, but he needs a bit of coaxing.” Yanagi turns toward the door. “Come on, Genichirou, you already promised you would do this.”  
  
There’s the sound of indistinct grumbling from beyond the door, and then Sanada steps into the room. Marui, Niou, and Akaya immediately burst out laughing.  
  
“Tarundoru!” Sanada yells. “What are you laughing at!” He’s wearing, of all things, a schoolgirl sailor uniform, complete with bright yellow collar and black skirt. He even has the long socks, probably courtesy of Yanagi. And the best part: he’s _still wearing the hat._  
  
Once Marui has stopped laughing long enough to speak, he wheezes out, “I’m amazed you managed to find that in Rikkai colors, Yanagi.”  
  
Yanagi levels a nod at him. “Thank you.”  
  
Niou’s still cracking up. “Seriously, do you _live_ in that hat, or what?”  
  
“You’re all getting laps if you don’t stop laughing,” Sanada threatens, red-faced, as he moves out of the doorway.  
  
“Okay, so is it finally my turn, now?” Yukimura’s voice calls out.  
  
Niou whistles toward the door. Marui calls out, “Saving the best for last, come on.”  
  
And he does. Yukimura strides in with a confident smile and twirls around for them. He’s got on a black maid outfit with white lace accents, and has ditched the matching socks in favor of showing off his legs. The dress is simple, yet attractive, and somehow it suits him perfectly.  
  
Marui’s jaw drops. “Damn. Our captain wins this one.” The room is filled with a mix of nervous laughter and fervent approval.  
  
Sanada just stares.  
  
Yukimura smiles up at him. “What do you think, Sanada?”  
  
“I… uh…” Sanada can’t form a response. Can barely even think.  
  
“I’d say that’s a positive response,” Yanagi laughs.  
  
Yukimura gives him a coy smirk, then turns away and claps his hands. “All right, everyone, we’ve had our fun for the moment! Off to practice!”  
  
As they shuffle out of the room amidst nervous-excited chattering, Niou mutters to Marui, “I think Yukimura’s deluding himself if he thinks anyone’s gonna get anything done today.”  
  
Marui silently agrees.  
  
——  
  
All in all, practice isn’t nearly as much of a disaster as expected. Which isn’t to say that it’s not still a disaster, because it is, but at least it’s an entertaining one.  
  
Yukimura, to his credit, at least tries to play normally. After all, even if they’re having a bit of an unusual practice, tennis is tennis, and he’s not going to let something like this get in his way.  
  
He still gets points off Sanada far more easily than he’d like. Not that Sanada’s not trying, too—it’s just that he keeps letting balls go past him because he can’t tear his eyes away from Yukimura’s skirt.  
  
“Sanada!” Yukimura yells across the net. “Stop slacking! You’re completely out of form today!” He hears Sanada just manage to stammer out a reply behind him as he turns to walk back to the base line.  
  
And if he sashays his hips a bit more than usual as he walks, well, no one else needs to know that. Honestly, he’s a bit conflicted over this; tennis is tennis, after all, but tempting Sanada is another matter entirely.  
  
For his part, Sanada really isn’t sure why this is happening. It’s not like he’s ever had an interest in crossdressing and the like before. If you’d asked him yesterday, he’d have scoffed and said that the idea of him finding it attractive was ridiculous.  
  
But the way the skirt flutters around Yukimura’s legs… and shows off his well-toned muscles…  
  
Sanada barely notices as Yukimura scores another service ace off of him.  
  
——  
  
Yanagi smiles to himself as he watches Yukimura saunter away from the nearby court. Things are going just as expected, it would seem.  
  
He stops the game he’s been playing with Akaya—he would prefer to watch everyone else right now, anyway—and observes the boy on the other side of the net. He’s still moving awkwardly and hesitantly, clearly far too self-conscious of his current appearance.  
  
“Akaya,” he calls out. “Perhaps this is a good time to see if you can score a few points off Genichirou.”  
  
Akaya’s face brightens as he perks up at that. “Hey, wait, you’re right! Thanks, senpai!” And he runs off, embarrassment apparently forgotten.  
  
Yanagi nods, satisfied, and goes off to observe his other teammates.  
  
——  
  
Marui is currently engaged in what’s supposed to be a doubles match between himself and Niou versus Yagyuu and Jackal, and he’s honestly not sure if it’s going well or terribly.  
  
Jackal isn’t the problem. Actually, he seems to have gotten over his earlier embarrassment pretty quickly; aside from his grumbling at having to readjust the dress that keeps riding up, he’s playing pretty normally. And although Marui’s own dress has a few too many frills for him to run around in easily, he’s certainly not the problem, either.  
  
The other two, on the other hand? Well. Yagyuu is being twice as vicious as usual, and that’s saying something, because he’s usually pretty vicious even on normal days. Marui lets out a sigh as another Laser Beam rockets past him.  
  
“Hey, could you maybe let some of us have a turn, here?” he calls over.  
  
“That was hardly anywhere near full speed, Marui-kun,” Yagyuu replies coolly. He seems calm, but there’s a distinct edge in his voice, and his shoulders are a bit too stiff.  
  
Marui sighs again and falls back to talk to Niou, who’s barely moved since the match started.  
  
“Could you maybe at least _try_ , here?” he says. “They’re kicking our asses.”  
  
Niou shrugs, not looking away from Yagyuu. “What’s the point? We knew this practice was going to be a farce anyway.”  
  
“Yeah, okay, except your lover-boy over there’s way worse than usual, and _I’m_ the one getting the full force of his wrath while you’re busy ogling him,” Marui argues.  
  
“Hey, fine by me.” Niou grins.  
  
Marui punches him in the shoulder.  
  
“Would you mind getting into position?” Yagyuu calls from where he’s poised to serve.  
  
Marui rolls his eyes. “If you’re going to sneak off, man, do it sooner rather than later so I don’t have to deal with this, okay?” he says over his shoulder to Niou as he moves back up front.  
  
There’s no reply, but he can practically _feel_ Niou’s grin behind him.  
  
——  
  
Yanagi is calmly observing the doubles match going on when from behind him, he hears, “Shouldn’t you be doing something instead of standing around the whole practice?”  
  
“I’m gathering data, Seiichi,” he says back. “Besides, you knew as well as I did when you agreed to this that no one would be able to practice like normal.”  
  
Yukimura sighs as he walks up to stand next to him. “I know, but I can try anyway,” he admits. “How are they doing?”  
  
“It’s generally within the realm of my predictions, but still interesting to watch. Yagyuu in particular seems to be attacking much more in order to compensate for his embarrassment at the situation. Niou, on the other hand, is nowhere near his usual performance. Marui and Jackal are playing fairly well, but both pairs are completely out of sync.”  
  
Yukimura raises an eyebrow. “So it’s a mess.”  
  
“It’s complete chaos,” Yanagi agrees. “But it’s interesting chaos.”  
  
“I see you’re enjoying this, at least,” Yukimura says with amusement. He looks Yanagi’s dress up and down. “You seem like you’ve got no problem with this whole thing.”  
  
“I see no reason why I should have a problem with it,” Yanagi says evenly. “How is Sanada doing, by the way?”  
  
“Still terrible.” Yukimura shakes his head. “Akaya’s more than fine now that he’s realized he can take advantage of it. Honestly, both of them.”  
  
Yanagi hides a smile. “You realize I’ll know you’re lying if you try to claim that you’re honestly upset about Sanada acting like this.”  
  
Yukimura shifts and adjusts his skirt. “I had no idea this would work so well, honestly.”  
  
“Mm, the trick is whether or not he’ll say anything about it,” Yanagi muses. They’ll have to cross that bridge when they come to it.  
  
——  
  
“Okay, time out!” Niou yells. He walks over to the nearby bench and collapses onto it; Marui follows him over.  
  
“I might’ve messed this one up,” Niou says. “The leather is seriously hard to move around in.”  
  
“Oh, boo hoo, like you’ve done anything today anyway,” Marui retorts. He gathers his skirt and sits down next to Niou. “At least you look hot while suffering.”  
  
Niou groans. “I dunno, I have no idea if Yagyuu is responding to it or not.” He shifts in his seat. “And speaking of Yagyuu.”  
  
Marui groans. “Seriously, dude, just go do your own thing, I don’t wanna know.” He very deliberately avoids looking down at Niou’s skirt.  
  
Niou gets a pondering look on his face. “You think we could sneak off now?”  
  
Marui glances around. Yukimura and Yanagi are nearby, but they both seem engrossed in a discussion. “Yukimura’s distracted. So’s the Queen of Hearts. Go now.”  
  
“Don’t have to tell me again.” Niou gets up and walks over to Yagyuu, grabs his hand, and before anyone can protest, starts dragging him away from the courts.  
  
Marui stares after them for a moment, then shrugs. They’re out of sight, so it’s not his problem anymore.  
  
“Hey Jackal,” he calls as he heads back over to the court. “Wanna continue with a singles game?”  
  
“Sure,” Jackal says easily. “I know you’re dying to show off in that thing anyway.”  
  
Marui grins and twirls around, letting his skirt fan out around him. He gets a laugh in response.  
  
——  
  
They’ve barely made it behind the club room when Niou presses Yagyuu against the wall and starts kissing him. “Fuck, you look way too hot in that,” he breathes.  
  
“I was trying not to go for sexy,” Yagyuu manages to respond when Niou breaks away.  
  
Niou snickers. “So you went for the _Catholic schoolgirl?_ Seriously, what goes on in your head?”  
  
“Obviously I—aah—miscalculated,” Yagyuu says as Niou dips his head down to press more kisses against his jaw.  
  
“No shit.” Niou leans in to grind up against Yagyuu’s thigh, and there’s a certain heat that presses up against Yagyuu’s leg. “Want me to show you just _how_ badly you miscalculated?”  
  
Yagyuu’s glasses glint ominously, and that’s all the warning Niou gets before Yagyuu grabs his shoulder and whirls around to push Niou up against the wall instead.  
  
Yagyuu leans forward to murmur into Niou’s ear, “Perhaps _I_ should show _you_ what you’ve been doing to me with that leather getup of yours.”  
  
An incredibly pleased smile spreads across Niou’s face at that. “Maybe you should,” he says breathlessly.  
  
——  
  
“FIYAH!”  
  
Marui whistles as the shot sails past him.  
  
“Hey, I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you got over this whole thing pretty quickly, didn’t you?” he calls over to Jackal.  
  
Jackal shrugs. “It’s not that bad once you get used to it. This is pretty easy to move around in.”  
  
Marui grins. “I knew you’d see it my way sooner or later.”  
  
Truth be told, it’s been a pretty close game so far. Marui is, perhaps, not playing as well as usual, but he’s still playing pretty well, and he looks awesome doing it.  
  
“I’m glad to see that some people, at least, are taking today seriously,” their captain’s voice cuts in as Yukimura appears next to the net.  
  
“Gotta make up for everyone else, don’t we?” Marui says. “Speaking of, how’s our esteemed vice-captain doing over there?”  
  
Yukimura sighs. “About as I expected.” He glances over to where Sanada is still playing against Akaya. Sanada’s regained some of his composure now, but he’s still fumbling much more than he would normally.  
  
Marui raises an eyebrow as he follows Yukimura’s gaze. “You know, he really wouldn’t look that bad if he’d just ditch the stupid hat,” he muses.  
  
“Somehow I don’t think his own outfit is what he’s flustered by,” Jackal says dryly.  
  
“Oh, I know _that_ ,” Marui assures him.  
  
“By the way.” Yukimura’s voice has a steely edge to it this time when he cuts into the conversation again. “While we’re on the subject, where, pray tell, are your doubles partners?”  
  
Oh shit. “I don’t know a thing,” Marui denies, a little too quickly.  
  
Yukimura just looks at him, waiting.  
  
After a minute, he cracks. “Look, okay, _you_ try playing a doubles game with that. My opponent was trying to kill me and my partner was useless, what else was I supposed to do but let them go work off the tension a bit?” Not that he really wants to think about _that_. Ick.  
  
“Are they really—no, wait, of course they are.” Yukimura rubs one hand over his eyes.  
  
“Who’s doing what now?”  
  
Marui turns around and isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or cry. Niou’s hair is thoroughly disheveled, his tiny leather pieces are out of place, and he’s grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Behind him is Yagyuu with his dress rumpled and his hair looking like he frantically tried to get it back into place but failed; he, at least, looks vaguely self-conscious.  
  
Yukimura levels an icy look at them. “You sure have a lot of guts to be running off in the middle of practice.”  
  
Niou’s self-satisfied smile doesn’t even budge. “Totally worth whatever we’ll get for it.”  
  
“Extra laps for the next two days. I’ll be lenient because this is an unusual situation.” Even he can’t deny that this whole day was practically asking for something like this to happen.  
  
“Totally worth it,” Niou repeats. Yagyuu doesn’t say anything, but the redness of his face would indicate he doesn’t disagree.  
  
“I sure hope it was. You certainly took your sweet time. Practice is almost over.”  
  
“Oh, there are _so_ many ways I could make an innuendo out of that,” Niou leers. “And are you sure you’re not just pissed because it wasn’t Sanada running off with you in the middle of practice instead?”  
  
Yukimura glares. “One more word out of you and you’ll be running extra laps for a month.”  
  
Niou’s grin widens, but he makes a gesture of locking his lips anyway. Good to see he has at least some self-preservation instincts left, Marui thinks.  
  
——  
  
All in all, when practice ends, no one’s quite sure if it went on for far too long or didn’t go on nearly long enough.  
  
As they all shuffle off to get changed, Sanada’s mind is still spinning. He’s been dwelling on this way too long, and he wants to shout at himself for slacking so much. But Yukimura… the way the skirt fluttered around his perfectly toned legs was nothing short of maddening. He’d had no idea that something like this could drive him so crazy.  
  
Part of him wants to walk straight up to Yukimura, sweep him off his feet, and carry him off somewhere private where no one can disturb them for the next few hours. But no, the rational part of his brain points out, you have to talk about these things first. And how does he even begin to bring it up? What would he even want to accomplish with that conversation?  
  
Flustered as he is, he deliberately keeps from glancing Yukimura’s way as they head inside the locker room, and so he misses Yukimura giving him significant glances the entire way.  
  
——  
  
“So I think that was a smashing success,” Marui says as he and Jackal walk home together.  
  
Jackal gives him a look. “It was a smashing _something_ , anyway.”  
  
“Come on, you can’t say you didn’t think it was at least a little fun.”  
  
“Fine, okay, I admit it, it was a little fun.” Jackal sighs. “But what am I even going to do with this dress now? Give it to my mother? It’s not her style at all.”  
  
Marui shrugs. “No idea. Not my style, either. Give it to Niou. Or Yukimura. One of them’ll find a use for it.”  
  
Jackal makes a face. “I guess. What about yours, by the way?”  
  
“Oh, I’m keeping the dress.” Marui holds his lolita dress out at arm’s length—he’d hung it up to carry so it wouldn’t get wrinkled. “I might even wear it. My mother will be fucking delighted.”  
  
“…Why am I even surprised anymore.”  
  
——  
  
By the next day, the team has more or less returned to normal. But by afternoon practice, when Sanada still hasn’t so much as approached him, Yukimura realizes it’s time to take things into his own hands.  
  
Lucky for him, Sanada’s still preoccupied, and so he’s still lingering in the locker room after everyone else has left for the day. Perfect. Yukimura quietly goes over to lock the door and then makes his move.  
  
“Oh, Sanada, I need to talk to you for a minute.”  
  
Sanada turns around automatically, and then his brain short-circuits for the second time in as many days. Because Yukimura is standing there, wearing the exact same maid dress that’s been occupying his thoughts. Sanada vaguely wonders if he’s dreaming.  
  
“You’ve know you’ve been staring since the moment you first saw me wearing this,” Yukimura says in a low voice.  
  
Sanada gulps and looks up at him. “You… you noticed?”  
  
Yukimura almost laughs out loud. “Sanada, honey, anyone with eyes noticed. You’re not exactly subtle.”  
  
“I…” He tries to figure out how to respond, but comes up blank.  
  
Giving a slight smile, Yukimura pushes Sanada to sit down on the nearest bench, then climbs up to straddle his lap, hands on Sanada’s shoulders.  
  
“Not that I mind,” he murmurs. “That’s exactly the reaction I was looking for.” And then he leans in and pulls Sanada into a deep kiss.  
  
Sanada returns the kiss eagerly, then pulls back after a minute once his thoughts finally catch up. “Oh… _oh_ ,” he manages breathlessly.  
  
Yukimura laughs. “Yes, oh. Why do you think I agreed to do this in the first place?”  
  
Before Sanada can answer, Yukimura pulls him into another kiss.  
  
——  
  
Outside the door:  
  
“This is about the outcome I expected, but it’s still very good data anyway.” Yanagi smiles what those who know him well would recognize as a very satisfied smile.  
  
“Oh man, this is _so_ going to make for some great blackmail material on Sanada.” Niou can barely muffle his laughter.  
  
“I can’t _believe_ I accidentally helped with this. This is not what I was trying to go for.” Marui buries his face in his hands.  
  
——  
  
That night, a ways off in Tokyo, Inui Sadaharu sets down his phone and reviews the extensive notes he’s just taken.  
  
“Ii data.” A very productive conversation with Renji, indeed. He has to admit even he’s never thought of this before. The entire regular team, in women’s clothing during practice? It would be completely outlandish and disruptive… and… and the data would be fantastic.  
  
Inui’s glasses glint as an evil grin spreads across his face.  
  
——  
  
The next morning, Yanagi gathers them all to announce that Seigaku has studied their experiment with cosplay and will be replicating it within their own team. Marui and Niou can barely stop laughing long enough to give each other a high five.


End file.
